We all know that guest posting on related companies or influencers’ blogs is valuable. It’s also well known, that doing outreach to these guest posting opportunities isn’t that difficult—especially with a good template and a software that schedules and tracks progress.

So, you sit down with the world’s favorite search engine and start typing:

[Your keyword] + write for us

[Your keyword] + guest post

[Your keyword] + writing guidelines

[Your keyword] + etc., etc., etc.

Eventually, you craft a list of 10-20 known places that you could write content for and send out those super-personalized emails. If done well, you can actually get a handful of opportunities (usually 20%-30% response). You write amazing content, get a great link and exposure to those audiences. Everyone knows that tip and it still works.

Now what?

Guest posting can be a powerful, albeit slow-moving, growth strategy. That said, for it to pay off—consistent opportunities are required. Yes, some of the consistency comes from being a regular contributor.

But what about going wide as well as deep.

You have to develop a good long-lasting ground game. Infrastructure that includes smaller and larger opportunities. Strategies that you can use regularly to build relationships to pull on as well as ramp up during launches and big initiatives.

None of this is possible with just a list of a couple dozen influencers. Here’s how we get a steady flow of guest post opportunities.

Master List of (Little Known) Opportunities

Number One: Social Search

Let’s enter the water slowly with a similar tip to the most known tactic. Instead of searching Google for opportunities, you’ll use social networks. All of the major players in social have a powerful search bar. It’s just a matter of going through those same variations (keyword + guest post).

There is a bit more nuance to it, though.

Depending on your niche or industry, one network may be more valuable than another. I’ve put together a few examples to show you.

Twitter is good for Tech/Software/B2B/Authority type opportunities. I did a quick search for “tech guest post” and found 2-3 opportunities without needing the slightest scroll downward.

LinkedIn is great for productivity, case studies (like if you want to talk about how you did something good or bad in your business), or the same tech/B2B industries. A simple search and the first option was a tech company actively looking for guest contributors.

Here’s a screenshot of a quick search there.

Important: Remember to click on the “Posts” tab after your search.

Pinterest is great for home products, cooking, organization, and (well, you know what kind of things are on Pinterest). All I did was search “Cook Guest Post” and look at all those opportunities.

Benefit of Social Search: The best thing about looking for guest opps this way is the recent nature of posts. If you search once per month, the opportunities are likely to be new—giving you more opportunities all the time.

Number Two: Reverse Social Lookup

If you’re looking to contribute on other blogs, it’s likely you (or your company) have your own. Hopefully, the content is good and shareable. If your content is valuable and being shared by others in similar/related industries—there is an opportunity.

Doing a bit of spying research on the person/company to see if they have a blog of their own. If you’re interested in the stats, you can put in their URL in Alexa. However, that isn’t as important for a long-term guest posting strategy.

If they have a blog and have shared your content—your foot is already in the proverbial door.

All you have to do is reach out to them. If they have an email address available, that’s best. But you could use LinkedIn, a contact form, or even publicly call them out, like on Twitter.

LeadFuze has used this tactic to land several guest posts (including this one :). The best part is…it averages a 90%+ response rate. They’ve already shared your stuff! Which means they like your content and know who you are.

We were mentioned by RepIQ:

We reached out and…

Again, this too can be done on just about any social platform.

Potential Template: You don’t have to be super catchy here. All you have to do is say thank you and then give them the pitch. Here’s a screenshot of one email our content manager sent and then a template for you to copy/paste.

Would you be interested in a guest post from [your company/site name]?

Look forward to hearing from you and we really appreciate the share!

Best,

[Your awesome email signature]

3 Important Things:

Subject line has to be “Thanks for mentioning us, sharing our content, or something of the like”. The reason is two-fold. First, the person your emailing is busy and likely doesn’t know you (especially founders) this will entice them to open. Second, is because of the next thing you need to do.

Make sure you link to the social post. I sent the example email above to the founder of the company. He likely doesn’t manage the social media and may not know anything about the share. A link proves you’re telling the truth and gives you instant credibility.

Thank them (with the link), state your business (ask for the guest post), thank them again. Keep this short template and you’ll likely see a large response rate with this method.

Number Three: Mention “Them” in Your Content

This is a multi-tiered process that will work well for newer sites/products to build relationships with related niches that are more popular than you.

First, write epic content. Something that is beyond worth sharing, like a resource worth paying for. Or, better yet, that a company would pay to be listed in. For instance, Brian Dean of Backlinko.

Everything he writes is spectacular, but he wrote the mother of all SEO tools lists. It must have taken weeks. But that just makes it that much easier for those companies to want to share it with their audience.

You reach out to those who you mention and (obviously) want them to share your content with their followers.

But why stop there? If you put a ton of time into creating something that awesome, there is more juice in that lemon. There are a few ways to go about this. You could:

Double-Dose: Ask for both the social share and the guest post opp in the same email. This is less likely to be effective. You really want a clear call-to-action and that divides the message.

Guest Post Only: Skip the social question and just go for the guest post opportunity. If you are really wanting it, this can work. We did something similar with a recent opp (not out yet). We just told them we did a brand mention and asked for a GP—it worked. They’re going to read your post to see how you portrayed them. If they like it, you’re probably in.

Tier-Outreach: First, ask for the social share. If the content is awesome and you list, say, 10 different opportunities in the post—you may get 3-5 shares. Then, you can thank them for the share and use a similar template to tactic number two (and likely see a high response rate).

Here’s the email we sent (with the name of the company blacked out) feel free to snag the copy and make it work for you. This particular post has been approved and is still in the works (at the time of this post being written).

Doing a tiered approach can also build a relationship with these influencers and lead to other opportunities (podcasts, joint ventures, etc.).

Bonus Tactic: Use Quuu

Using Quuu is a perfect way to have guest posting opportunities come knocking on your door. There are two products that Quuu offers. One for people with audiences who want more content to share. Another for content creators to get their content in front of those audiences.

For around $10-$50, your post could be picked up by various influencers to share with their audiences.

After promoting your stuff, those very influencers can then be contacted (using tactic number two) and quite possibly become a bona fide guest posting opportunity. Not to mention that your post could be seen by up to 500,000 people (depending on the popularity of the topic).

This exposure could lead to hundreds of social shares and dozens of opportunities for those guest posts.

Guest Posting for Long-Term Growth

Doing guest posts are almost synonymous with new websites, product and book launches, and other short-term promotions. But it’s really a quality growth hack for the long haul. There is a lot of fruit that can come from building a sustainable process for guest posting.

Partnerships, networking, integrations, powerful link-building, and much more can come from this one venue.

Have you used any of these tactics before? Which one are you most excited to try?

Justin McGill, thanks for this timely post. We are about to start this in next couple of weeks and was gathering guest posting sites’ information. This article gave us much information and ideas, and we are going to explore these soon.